We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. In fact, we’ll say it again right now: Our Tracks Of The Week feature is a truly international affair, a beacon of hope and reconciliation in “these troubled times”.
Want proof? Of course, you don’t. But we’ll provide it anyway, with the news that Chilean-born, Belgium-residing siren Dani Hart has secured victory in this week’s contest with 36.38% of the vote, keeping a step or two ahead of Will Wilde (Brighton) and Ricky Warwick (Northern Ireland/Los Angeles) in a competition that was a good-natured as it was without borders. Sometimes it’s exactly like Camp David in here, honest.
This week, we go again. The details are below, after a reprise for Dani Hart’s winning entry.
Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote as hard as you can.
Hannah Wicklund – Mama Said
An early tune of singer/guitarist Hannah Wicklund’s (she wrote it as a teenager with Hannah Wicklund & The Stepping Stones), Mama Said gets a mature, psychedelic makeover on this new live version – Zeppelin/Stairway-esque moodiness, commanding guitar and talkbox solos included. “The pain of being a young girl trying to feel loved at the hands of man twice her age is where Mama Said was born,” Hannah says, adding: “The level of expression you can reach by adding the talk box to your guitar playing is fascinating to me, especially layered then by delay, recreating the echoes that ruminate in your mind when you’re young and figuring the world out.”
Blackberry Smoke – Come Go With Us
At a time when our inbox is starting to heave with Christmas singles, it sure is peachy to hear a really good one. Last week we had Ricky Warwick, this week it’s Blackberry Smoke, and they’ve got a beautifully evocative, witty, bittersweet piece of homespun holiday feeling. Frontman Charlie Starr strikes a lower, more velvety tone than usual – less Rolling Stones rollicker, more Willie Nelson-style troubadour – and the accompanying image of a trailer covered in fairy lights perfectly encapsulates this intimate shot of smalltown southern life, with a festive spin.
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Detroit
A hulking, hypnotic slab of menacing doom-laden noise, with a creepy concept to match, from Newcastle’s porcine metallers. Darkly angular and nasty, yes, but sufficiently groove-driven to keep you hooked. “Detroit reflects on the worst manifestations of male jealousy and resentment,” says singer Matt Baty, “and the ways in which a lack of accountability can lead to deflecting responsibility in exchange for blaming external forces like fate or God for perceived injustice”.
Orianthi – Some Kind Of Feeling
She’s been cultivating a solo catalogue since her teens – by turns bluesy, gnarly, poppy… – and played with Alice Cooper, Steve Vai, Prince, Richie Sambora and many more while she was at it. Now Greek/Aussie-turned-L.A. guitar star Orianthi strikes a soulful bounce with Some Kind Of Feeling. Produced by Kevin Shirley, and the first of more to come with her new album (coming out in the new year) it finds her hitting a sweetly breezy yet biting blues rock guitar stride, teamed with rich, sunkissed vocals.
Girish & The Chronicles – Kaal
Big, bruising and choppy, Girish and his Bangalore-based Chronicles’ new one steps away from the 80s gloss of much of their earlier work, and into a gnarlier, grungier shade of metallic hard rock – though they still squeeze in a fast and furious bout of soloing, with a noodly, prog-metally slant (less Slash, more John Petrucci). Big-haired sounds with a menacing underbelly and a trippy-then-crunchy bridge breakdown that made us think of Porcupine Tree circa Fear Of A Blank Planet. Also ‘Kaal’ is a Sanskrit term for ‘time’ or ‘death’, so maybe that explains the darkened heart here.
Little Strange – You Said
Part catchy, stompy 60s rock’n’roller, part Black Keys-esque garage blues fest, the DIY Manchester rockers’ new single is a cool, louche affair with a satisfying layer of dirt under its fingernails. It’s short and sweet – drawing audible inspiration from the wells of the Beatles and the Sonics – keeping just the right level of snap and urgency under the debonair vibes. They’ve got more planned for 2025, including touring, so watch this space.
Thundermother – Dead Or Alive
There’s an atmospheric, almost Billy Idol-esque pallor to the opening notes of the Swedes’ latest. It does grow into a proper uptempo rocker, but laced with a moody, contemplative quality that quietly separates it from their earlier work (not to mention earlier lineups: guitarist Filippa is the sole original member standing). As the band say: “With Dead or Alive we’re exploring the feeling of emptiness that sometimes come after a warm summer and into the fall. We’re asking the question of “what do I do with my life, now that the darkness is upon me for eight months?”. We don’t have any answers, but we hope that our fans can connect with that feeling and that Dead or Alive can be a song for those who is asking that same question.”
Bruce Springsteen – She Don’t Love Me Now
Bruce Springsteen’s lovely cover of Jesse Malin’s She Don’t Love Me Now was released as a single back in September, but what it didn’t have then was a video starring Sheer Terror frontman and New York hardcore legend Paul Bearer, who dances his way through a performance that’s all the more poignant because Malin – paralysed from the waist down after suffering a spinal stroke – cannot. It’s from the all-star album Silver Patron Saints : The Songs Of Jesse Malin, which was released a couple of months back and also features contributions from Billie Joe Armstrong, Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello, The Hold Steady, Tommy Stinson, Tom Morello, Rancid and many more.
